Captured by undercover investigators
and released in 2012, the above video depicts a disturbing scene inside
a large Idaho dairy facility. We see workers committing various acts of
violence against cows: kicking and punching them, beating them with
rods, twisting their tails, and, most graphically, wrapping a chain
around the neck of a downed cow and dragging it with a tractor. The
exposed dairy promptly fired five workers in the aftermath, but behind the scenes, Idaho's $6.6 billion dairy industry
quietly began working with its friends in the state legislature on a
different response, according to US District Court Judge B. Lynn
Winmill.
In a decision
released Monday, Winmill wrote that the Idaho Dairymen's Association
"responded to the negative publicity by drafting and sponsoring" a bill
that criminalizes the "types of undercover investigations that exposed
the [violent] activities." Known as ag gag legislation—check out Ted
Genoways' must-read Mother Jones piece on the phenomenon—it sailed through the Idaho Legislature and became a law in 2014.
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Winmill declared the law unconstitutional in his decision,
stating that its only purpose is to "limit and punish those who speak
out on topics relating to the agricultural industry, striking at the
heart of important First Amendment values." Moreover, the judge ruled,
the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, "as
well as preemption claims under three different federal statutes."
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/08/judge-idaho-ag-gag-law-unconstitutional
